Ezekiel 23

1The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

2Son of man, two women were daughters of one mother.

3They prostituted themselves in Egypt; they prostituted themselves in their youth; there their breasts were squeezed, and there the teats of their virginity were fondled.

4Their names were Aholah the elder and Aholibah her sister; they became mine and bore sons and daughters. Their names: Samaria is Aholah, Jerusalem Aholibah.

5Aholah committed fornication while she was mine and lusted for her lovers, the nearby Assyrians.

6Dressed in blue, governors and officials, all of them handsome young men, horsemen mounted on horses.

7She gave her harlotries to the choicest sons of Assyria, all of them, and to everyone she doted on; with all their idols she defiled herself.

8She did not abandon her prostitution from Egypt, for they lay with her in her youth, squeezed her virgin breasts, and poured out their prostitution on her.

9Therefore I gave her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians on whom she doted.

10They bared her nakedness, seized her sons and her daughters, and killed her with the sword, and she became notorious among women because they carried out judgments on her.

11Her sister Aholibah saw this and was more corrupt in her lust than she, and her prostitutions exceeded her sister's.

12She lusted after Assyrian captains and rulers, her close allies dressed in splendid array, horsemen mounted on horses, all of them handsome young men.

13I saw that she was defiled; one way for both of them.

14She added to her prostitution and saw men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion.

15girded with girdles around their loins, wearing flowing dyed attire on their heads—all of them having the appearance of captains, like the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their birth.

16She doted on them the moment she laid eyes on them and sent messengers to them into Chaldea.

17The Babylonians came to her into the bed of loves and defiled her with their prostitution; she was defiled by them, and her soul loathed them.

18She exposed her whoredoms and bared her nakedness, so my soul turned from her, just as my soul turned from her sister.

19She increased her prostitution as she remembered the days of her youth, when she had committed fornication in the land of Egypt.

20She lusted after their lovers, whose flesh was like the flesh of donkeys and whose seed like the seed of horses.

21You revisited the lewdness of your youth in the handling of your breasts by the Egyptians for the breasts of your youth.

22Therefore, Aholibah, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will rouse your lovers against you, those from whom your soul recoiled, and I will bring them against you from every side.

23Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, all the Assyrians with them; choice young men, governors and rulers, all of them captains and famous men, all riding horses.

24They will come against you with chariots, wagons, and wheels, with throngs of peoples; they will bring buckler, shield, and helmet against you from all sides, and I will set judgment before them, and they will judge you by their judgments.

25I will turn my jealousy against you, and they will execute fierce wrath on you by severing your nose and your ears; your survivors will fall by the sword, they will seize your sons and your daughters, and your survivors will be consumed by fire.

26They will strip you of your garments and take your beautiful ornaments.

27I will bring your lewdness to an end from you and your prostitution from the land of Egypt, so that you will not raise your eyes to them nor remember Egypt anymore.

28For thus says Lord Yahweh: Here I am, giving you into the hand of those you hate, into the hand of those from whom your soul is alienated.

29They will treat you hatefully, seize all your labor, and abandon you naked and bare, exposing the shame of your whoredoms—your lewdness and your prostitution.

30These things will be done to you because you prostituted yourself after the nations, because you have defiled yourself with their idols.

31Because you walked your sister's path, I will put her cup into your hand.

32Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You will drink your sister's deep and large cup; it will be a laughingstock and derision, containing much.

33You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow from the cup of horror and desolation, your sister Samaria's cup.

34You will surely drink it and drain it, gnaw its shards, and tear your breasts, for I have spoken, declares the Lord Yahweh.

35Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: Because you forgot me and cast me behind your back, bear your lewdness and your whoredoms too.

36Yahweh said to me, “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Declare their abominations to them.”

37For they committed adultery, blood is in their hands, and with their idols they committed adultery, and also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through to them to devour.

38Even this they have done to me: they defiled my sanctuary that day and profaned my Sabbaths.

39When they slaughtered their sons to their idols, they entered my sanctuary that very day to defile it; and look, this is what they have done in the midst of my house.

40Moreover, you sent a messenger to men coming from afar, and look, they came—for whom you bathed, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments.

41And you sat on a glorious bed, with a table arranged before it, and you placed my incense and my oil upon it.

42The clamor of a carefree crowd was with her, and Sabeans from the wilderness were brought with men from humanity's throng; they put bracelets on their hands and a crown of beauty on their heads.

43Then I said of her grown old in adulteries, "Now they will commit her prostitution, and she too."

44They came to her as one comes to a prostitute, and so they came to Aholah and Aholibah, women given to lewdness.

45Righteous men will judge them according to the judgment for adulteresses and according to the judgment for blood-shedders, because these are adulteresses and blood is in their hands.

46For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Bring up a company against them, and hand them over to turmoil and plunder.

47The congregation will stone them with stones and cut them down with their swords; they will kill their sons and daughters and burn their houses with fire.

48I will put lewdness to an end throughout the land, disciplining all women so they do not repeat your lewdness.

49They will lay your lewdness upon you, and you will bear the sins of your idols, and you will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.